Akinari Nao, whose name in kanji is 奈央晃徳, is a Japanese manga artist originating from Chiba Prefecture. His entry into the professional manga industry began after he caught the attention of a Kodansha editor at Comic Market. While still a university student, he gained valuable experience by working as an assistant to established manga creators Masashi Asaki and Jin Kobayashi. His career as a professional artist was launched after one of his works was selected for the 73rd Weekly Shonen Magazine Newcomer Manga Award, leading to his debut in 2005.

Nao has built a significant body of work primarily as an illustrator, frequently collaborating with writers on original manga series. One of his earliest major projects was Psycho Busters, a manga adaptation of a light novel series created in collaboration with writer Yuuya Aoki, which ran from 2006 to 2008. Following this, he created Countrouble, a series that he both wrote and illustrated, which was serialized in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine from 2009 to 2012.

His most commercially successful work is Trinity Seven, a fantasy action manga series created with writer Kenji Saito. The series began serialization in Fujimi Shobo’s Monthly Dragon Age magazine in 2010 and has since been compiled into over 30 tankobon volumes, making it a long-running and defining work in his bibliography. The success of Trinity Seven led to a significant expansion into other media. The manga was adapted into a twelve-episode anime television series in 2014, produced by Seven Arcs, which was followed by an original video animation, two anime films released in 2017 and 2019, and a light novel series, for which Nao also provided the illustrations.

Concurrent with his work on Trinity Seven, Nao began illustrating another major series, I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives, in 2016. For this series, he collaborates with writer Naoki Yamakawa, and it is serialized in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. The manga’s popularity led to its own anime adaptation, with a two-part television series produced by Maho Film that aired in 2020 and 2021, for which Nao is credited as the original manga creator. He is also recognized as the original character designer for the anime adaptation.

Nao’s artistic identity is closely tied to the action and fantasy genres, often incorporating ecchi elements into his work. His career is defined by long-term collaborations with writers, illustrating manga that are subsequently adapted into successful anime franchises. This pattern of creating source material for multimedia expansions establishes him as a significant figure in the production of popular fantasy and action-oriented manga aimed at the shonen and seinen demographics.